The Passion of the Christ (*** out of four) is one of the most unrelentingly graphic and blood-drenched films ever made. Director Mel Gibson has tackled the brutality not for the sake of titillation or even entertainment but to enlighten as well as to shock and awe audiences. And there is enlightenment even stark poetry in The Passion.

Mel Gibson has said The Passion of the Christ was shaped by a literal reading of the Gospels. Here are three scenes and corresponding references in the Gospel of Matthew from The New American Bible, widely used by U.S. Roman Catholics.